Premium Examination
We took the twins to a check-up today. This wasn’t one of their normal pediatrician check-ups where an array of nurses, assistants, and possibly members of the cleaning crew check their vitals, run down their developmental milestones, and then furrow their brows with concern when someone doesn’t grab a toy like a full-term four-month-old should. This was a special preemie check-up back at the NICU where a preemie developmental specialist closely examined both boys to ensure they’re hitting their milestones as adjusted for their early arrival, and that they’re avoiding any problems specific to preemies. Or maybe the examiner was a member of the cleaning crew; she never really identified herself to me. The point is, she knew preemies.
Determining a preemie’s development is a bit of an art form. Preemies start life behind full-term babies as they arrived before achieving full development in the womb. Therefore, it’s not accurate to compare our eight-weeks early four-month-olds to full-term four-month-olds. It’s also not quite accurate to lop eight weeks off their ages when determining developmental status since they’ve been out of the womb and developing for four-months, same as any other four-month-old. In fact, the shadowy group of experts that decides such things decided that a preemie should be developmentally equal to a full-term child by age 24-months, so sooner or later he’s going to catch up.
Regardless, the examiner simply lopped eight weeks off their ages when determining developmental status, which made us feel great that they’re way ahead of their adjusted peer age group. Tory went first, and performed exactly as I see him perform every day at home. He smiled, he cooed, he brought his arms to midline, which very few two-and-a-half-month olds can do.
Ian finally went before the examiner at about his scheduled naptime. He’d been squirming in my arms while waiting, so I warned the examiner that he’s tired and might be uncooperative for her. Ian responded by smiling, cooing, and bringing his arms to midline. Then he rolled from his back to his tummy for the first time ever. Then he rolled from his tummy to his back for the first time ever. Finally, just to show off, he intentionally grabbed a rattle from the examiner’s hand. The examiner was pleased with the wonderful parenting that was obviously happening in our home.
Then she pointed out how we were failing them. Most of our failings revolved around leaving them on their backs too much. Both boys have flat heads, and Tory’s is flat at an angle suggesting that he’s always looking to his right. Both have full range of motion turning their heads side to side, but they’re very tight doing so since they spend too much time on their backs looking straight up, or off to the right a bit. Abbie never had this problem; of course, Abbie never let me leave her on the floor for an hour at a time either. We need to pick them off the floor more often, or at least flip them onto their tummies, forcing them to move their heads and stretch those neck muscles. Also their skin is really dry and we need to use lotion more often.
Otherwise they look good. Both are growing well with Ian approaching the normal range of growth for full-term babies, and Tory threatening to eat his way past that same range as his weight nears 50th percentile. The examiner gave Abbie a sticker, gave us a book to read to our children, and sent us home with reassurances that our boys are developing normally. She also gave us some neck stretches to do on the boys several times a day, and a bottle of skin lotion.
Determining a preemie’s development is a bit of an art form. Preemies start life behind full-term babies as they arrived before achieving full development in the womb. Therefore, it’s not accurate to compare our eight-weeks early four-month-olds to full-term four-month-olds. It’s also not quite accurate to lop eight weeks off their ages when determining developmental status since they’ve been out of the womb and developing for four-months, same as any other four-month-old. In fact, the shadowy group of experts that decides such things decided that a preemie should be developmentally equal to a full-term child by age 24-months, so sooner or later he’s going to catch up.
Regardless, the examiner simply lopped eight weeks off their ages when determining developmental status, which made us feel great that they’re way ahead of their adjusted peer age group. Tory went first, and performed exactly as I see him perform every day at home. He smiled, he cooed, he brought his arms to midline, which very few two-and-a-half-month olds can do.
Ian finally went before the examiner at about his scheduled naptime. He’d been squirming in my arms while waiting, so I warned the examiner that he’s tired and might be uncooperative for her. Ian responded by smiling, cooing, and bringing his arms to midline. Then he rolled from his back to his tummy for the first time ever. Then he rolled from his tummy to his back for the first time ever. Finally, just to show off, he intentionally grabbed a rattle from the examiner’s hand. The examiner was pleased with the wonderful parenting that was obviously happening in our home.
Then she pointed out how we were failing them. Most of our failings revolved around leaving them on their backs too much. Both boys have flat heads, and Tory’s is flat at an angle suggesting that he’s always looking to his right. Both have full range of motion turning their heads side to side, but they’re very tight doing so since they spend too much time on their backs looking straight up, or off to the right a bit. Abbie never had this problem; of course, Abbie never let me leave her on the floor for an hour at a time either. We need to pick them off the floor more often, or at least flip them onto their tummies, forcing them to move their heads and stretch those neck muscles. Also their skin is really dry and we need to use lotion more often.
Otherwise they look good. Both are growing well with Ian approaching the normal range of growth for full-term babies, and Tory threatening to eat his way past that same range as his weight nears 50th percentile. The examiner gave Abbie a sticker, gave us a book to read to our children, and sent us home with reassurances that our boys are developing normally. She also gave us some neck stretches to do on the boys several times a day, and a bottle of skin lotion.
posted by Matt at
10:42 PM
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